Don Greening
Forum Replies Created
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[ShariLynn] “I just don’t like knowing the why of this.”
I’m sure this was just a typo, right? “I just would like to know the why of this.”
From what I’ve read and experienced with FCP, when the program starts to act up for no apparent reason, it’s usually a sign that the pref files have become corrupted. This happens more than just occasionally, so much so that there’s a nifty little freeware app called FCP Rescue available to do the job for you. Just Google it and it’ll come up. I’m sure you’re aware that if you do encounter a problem that you should try your fixes one at a time and then start FCP to see if the ‘fix’ worked. Otherwise you won’t know which one ended up being the cure.
I’m unsure of what GL2 settings you’re looking for with regard to using it with a steadicam rig. All I can think of at the moment is whether or not to use the camera’s optical image stabilization or not. On a tripod OIS should be turned off, otherwise it’ll try to correct the beginning and end of pan/tilt shots, presenting you with a small motion jerk as a result. In theory, using a steadicam with the GL2 would be similar to the tripod scenario, so I would recommend turning OIS off. Of course, once you have your new Steadicam Jr. in your possession, you’ll just have to take it out an play with it before you know for sure 🙂
I’ll be up fairly late tonight as well, so I’ll stop in here from time to time to check this thread.
– Don
“I never knew the true meaning of happiness until I started shooting DV. But by then it was too late.”
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Shari,
Have you tried trashing the FCP preference files yet, like others have suggested? If so, has there been any change?
[ShariLynn] “I don’t know what LaCie Big 500 Gig drives are – but I do like them. I’ve never known one to crash.”
There have been issues from some LaCie FW drive owners about their drives self-destructing because of various problems, overheating probably being the most common complaint. Personally I’ve never had even a hint of a problem with the 3 LaCie FW drives I own, and they’re always on when my Macs are running.
G-Raid by G Tech is another FW option that a lot of users recommend.
https://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-RAID.cfm
– Don
“I never knew the true meaning of happiness until I started shooting DV. But by then it was too late.”
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I’m also with Shane on this one. Graeme’s stuff is the best.
– Don
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Serg,
I really wouldn’t worry about it too much. It would be hard to tell whether it’s the camera or your NLE unless you’re willing to do a little test, such as to connect another camera to your computer to see if the problem continues or goes away. Don’t forget that you’re viewing the underscanned video image anyway and that the flickering line will never be seen on your final product.
– Don
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You can create a new non-anamorphic sequence, go to your anamorphic sequence, hit select all (Command-A) then copy (Command-C) and then paste everything into the new 4:3 sequence (Command-V). That should do it, quick and easy.
I have a 26in. LCD widescreen television in my studio. When I view a 16:9 DVD I’ve created I’m presented with many viewing choices, one of which is to view the widescreen movie without letterboxing. This aspect ratio is actually 15:9, and the drawback to that is you lose some of the frame on both sides of the screen. This sounds like what you want to do. As long as you’e aware of the trade off of not wanting to see the letterboxing……
– Don
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[arty] “sigh,,,why can’t i be that lucky in the lottery”
Indeed. Perhaps some maintenance for your system may be in order to keep future “luckiness” to a bare minimum.
Use DiskWarrior on a regular basis to build new hard drive directories.
Using Apple’s Disk Utility to repair permissions on your startup drive.
Make sure journaling is turned off for all drives other than the startup drive.
Use the freeware app Cocktail or something similar to clean out bloated cache and log files, also regularly.If you’re doing all the above already then disregard. This is just in case you’ve forgotten some of the regular maintenance routines.
– Don
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Here’s a link on how to trash Final Cut Pro’s preference files properly:
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/trashing_fcp_prefs.html
As DRW mentioned, FCP Rescue is a great little freeware app for trashing prefs in a hurry. Just Google it and it’ll come up.
– Don
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Personal opinions are subjective, however I see a very real difference in the picture quality between the XL1S I used to have and the XL2 I have now. The outside appearances of the two cameras may look somewhat similar, but inside the XL2 is a completely different camera. The imaging chips in the XL2 have a much higher pixel density than the ones in the XL1S, which results in a cleaner and sharper image.
– Don
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Hi Jeremy,
I think you’re already on the right track. You’ve captured your original footage properly as anamorphic because you shot in the DVX100A’s squeeze mode. You’re also editing in an anamorphic timeline, which is also the right way to do it. When you export your final movie, just use the same preset as your sequence. If you changed any of your clips to non-anamorphic then everything would get tall and skinny and your exported QT movie would be the same as well because you didn’t shoot it that way. In order to make a full screen movie of your anamorphic footage you’d have to crop the sides of your picture to 4:3 and then expand it to fill the voids on all four sides, thereby losing resolution and ultimately resulting in a poorer quality final movie.
If you’re going to DVD then bring the movie into whatever program you’re using (let’s pretend it’s DVDSP) and make sure your video track is set to 16:9 letterbox. Your finished DVD will play in 16:9 mode on both widescreen and full screen televisions in the proper aspect ratio. Of course, on the full screen TV the black letterbox bands on the top and bottom of the screen will be much larger, but it will still play with the same 16:9 aspect ratio.
This is the way I’ve always done it and there’s never been a problem playing the DVD on either type of TV.
Hope this helps.
– Don
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I don’t know either, but it’s definitely up there on the cool scale.
[Daniel5000] “Specifically the motion background and text elements.”
Perhaps you inadvertently answered your own question and Apple did indeed use the Motion app to do it.
– Don